Temporary Art: The Haus (Berlin III)

Definitely the most exciting venue in Berlin right now is The Haus: a complete building, five floors full of street-art. Every single spot inside the house has been turned into fancy artwork – staircases, elevators, floors and ceilings, doors, plugs and switches. And while you move through the hallways and rooms as in a dream, you become part of this incredible project.

A group of Berlin-based artists just took the chance to temporarily use a former bank – 10,000 square meters of a rather ugly 70’s architecture in the heart of City West. They invited street-artists from all over the world to join their project. More than 150 came, and for a couple of months the house was a wild artistic construction site.

Every room tells a different story. Two enormous feet stepping through the ceiling make me think of a giant walking the streets of Berlin. While one corridor is all neon colors in black light, another one is taped in a vivid geographic black-and-white pattern so you can hardly find the doors. One room is completely dark, when your eyes adjust you notice a scary figure … . Is this a dungeon? And then there is a kind of living room with a horse hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Even the bathrooms are part of the project, some in red plush, others covered with comic strips.

For eight weeks now, The Haus – biggest urban art gallery in 2017 – is open to the public. Come June 1, the wrecker’s ball will take over and the house will be torn down to give way to luxury flats. If you have the opportunity to visit The Haus bring some time. Not more than 200 people get in simultaneously. But waiting in line is part of the game and can be highly entertaining. If you want to take your impressions home get the very cool Haus-catalogue. Its final thought transcends the project: „At the end only the memory remains.“